August 23, 2016 | The Biz

Rent Boy CEO ready to plea in prostitution case

It’s been over a year since Rentboy.com was shut down by federal prosecutors amid charges of promotion of prostitution. Now Jeffrey Hurant, the escort site’s former CEO, is reportedly finalizing a plea deal. Hurant and the company had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Rentboy.com, online since 1996, was the largest and most well known of the gay escort sites. For almost twenty years the site operated without legal troubles; though it was obvious the site was meant to link up escorts and customers (which is against the law) no one was being harmed, so the authorities weren’t particularly concerned. Then, for unknown reasons, the feds turned mean and took the company down. Now escorts must rely on an array of less reliable and more risky means of finding customers.

In February federal proscecutors dropped charges against six Rentboy employees, but they continued to prosecute Hurant and the company itself.